Begining with this issue of the SIGNALS the pictures with borders can
be clicked on to get a larger version of that picture.

Saturday, September 28 was a day to remember. The ship bustled with
activity; she seemed to reach her full potential as an asset to the community
and to history. While the maintenance crew hustled with multiple tasks, the
guides lead tours through the ship. At the same time Naval Reservists from the
Albany Reserve Center cleaned the parking lot, polished the brass and
set of chairs for a change of command ceremony. Students from Monmouth
College toured the ship with DE vets from the Garden State DESA
Chapter as part of a new oral history program. The ship just seemed alive.

September has been Reunion Season. This past month we were visited by
the crews of USS WILHOITE DE397, HARVESON DE316, PILLSBURY DE133, ALEXANDER J.
LUKE DE577, FRYBARGER DE705, VANCE DE387, GUSTAFSON DE182, CLARENCE E. EVANS
DE 387, ZELLARS DD777, and CURRIER DE700. Needless to say we were kept
busy with ceremonies and memorial services. Ken Kaskoun's dedicated
color guard crew was stretched pretty thin making all our commitments, but with
the help of the Michigan volunteers, we always managed to turn out a color
detail. Our thanks to Ken, Jerry Jones, Bob Dawson, Larry Williams, Bill
Coyle, Dick Walker, Gene Cellini, Dave Floyd, Les Beauchaine, Jack Madden,
Bill Schroun, John Edwards and Pat Cancilla who look sharp in all kinds
of weather. My most memorable event of the month was helping a CURRIER
radar man make it up to CIC. He was on oxygen and had a wheeled bottle with
him, and we hauled bottle and tubing up two decks to he could see his old
station at the DRT. The DE sailor is not to be denied.

We are coming up with a new way of recognizing those ship crews that
have come to Albany for a reunion. When we complete our new gift shop
we will line a shelf close to the ceiling with the hats of all the ships that
have held reunions aboard SLATER. So, if your crew participated in an Albany
reunion, we need a hat from you for the spring.

We were host to a very special project. Through the good work of
Jim Mitchell, a special cooperative oral history program is underway
with history students at Monmouth College in New Jersey. Dr Susan Douglas
is using her students to gather oral histories from WWII vets. Jim
introduced her to the members of the Garden State Chapter of DESA. When
Susan learned of the existence of SLATER she decided that before her
students interviewed the DE vets, it would be a fine idea to bus them to
Albany to tour the SLATER. She reasoned that they should learn about DE
life first hand so they would have a better understanding and perspective
on what the sailors were telling them. Thus, on Saturday the 28th
a bus arrived with all her students and a large contingent of the Jersey
DESA Chapter. They spent most of the day aboard learning about DE life.
CAPDESA Yeoman Bob Donlon had arranged for them to eat at the Watervliet
Arsenal and tour there following their visit to SLATER. Upon completion of the
project Dr. Douglas has promised transcripts of the interviews for our
individual ship files. This opportunity for the ship to play a key role in
such an educational project is why we exist.

The change of command ceremony for the NR Striking Fleet Atlantic
Detachments went off after the departure of the Monmouth/Jersey DESA group.
Our IC Gang of Jerry Jones, Barry Witte and Ken Kaskoun spent
the previous week mounting additional speakers and making modifications to
the PA system. They shelled out some pocket money to make this happen. Now
when we have ceremonies the podium microphone feeds through the entire ships
1MC system. This makes it a whole lot easier for the poor soul in the radio
room to cue the music on the code room computer for the ceremonies. This
eliminates the traditional walkie-talkies that don't work at the critical
moment, the misunderstood hand signals, and the last resort running up the
main deck to the radio room to scream, "PLAY TAPS NOW!" But enough

about our world. Looks like those problems are over. As for the ceremony, it
was a beautiful afternoon and the ship made a perfect setting for the event.
Sailors from the Albany Naval Reserve Center and those involved in the ceremony
were resplendent in their whites. It looked to the world like SLATER was going
back in commission. We were proud that we could serve once again.

The Michigan Chapter of DESA showed up with their fall field day crew, a
small but highly motivated contingent. They came in on Sunday the 22nd
, and turned to that Monday morning. Faithful cooks Bill Kramer
and Jim Andrus turned out three meals a day all week and kept the galley
spotless, though not quite secured for sea. Striker and first timer Mike
Torian gave them a hand to ease their load.

Tom Schriner and a first timer and Air Force vet Gary Headworth tackled
the mechanical jobs. Their first task was to add additional heating coils
to the forward supply vent fan and pressure test the system. That kept them
occupied until Wednesday. Usually we like to wait until January to work on the
heating system, so this year we're ahead of the curve. When they completed
that job they went into the aft diesel room, B-3, to look into cleaning out a
D.O. tank for Bill Siebert. When they opened the tank they found it full
of water and oil. It was supposed to be dry. They pumped the waste into our
waste oil tank. Since there were no notes in the tow plan about this tank being
ballasted, there was some concern that it might be leaking from the outside
and taking water. But after a week of observation, the water hasn't risen,
so it may have been a last moment ballast job, perhaps to compensate for the
starboard list created when the Greeks removed the Evaporator and the donkey
boilers from B-2 back in '93. Tom and Gary spent Friday helping
the "Ping Jockey's" in sonar securing equipment. That took care of
their week. I promise, before the world, Tom, when you come in the spring
you can work on the diesels.

Another First timer was Norm Sullivan and his son in law Michael Torian
and Michael's son Mike. That made it easy to remember names. Norm
was a former seaman aboard SLATER in 1945, so it was like coming home. But
that isn't really Norm's claim to fame. Prior to reporting aboard
SLATER, Norm served aboard the FLETCHER Class can LEUTZE, DD481.
LEUTZE was in the thick of the Pacific war from 1943 on. In a wild
melee, LEUTZE was badly banged up by kamikazes on April 6, 1945. While
she was going to the aid of another damaged can, the NEWCOMB, LEUTZEwas so heavily damaged that she ended up being scrapped. So was NEWCOMB
for the record. Norm finished out the war on SLATER. He and his sons
were tasked with cutting in and rolling out the deck on the 01 level aft. They
did a fine job getting the non-skid and deck gray down in two days. Unfortunately
they had to leave Wednesday due to work commitments, other wise they would have
had the whole 02 level done too. Both "kids" were quite excited about
the project and the people and expressed a desire to come back.

Up in nosebleed country, the 03 Level, "Michigan" Dick Walker
was back restoring the MK 52-radar gear in the fire control shack. He also
painted and primed the deck above, under the gun director. Sonar men Bob
Donlon and Ron Mazure spent the week in the upper sound shack, or
the asdic hut as the Brits would say. They finished up the insulation repairs,
continued painting the white interior, worked on the voice tubes and began priming
the deck. With the help of Tom and Gary the got the 21MC, TRR and
the stack mounted in place. This was probably the first time former snipe Tom
Schriner ever got higher than the main deck. However, his partner was a
former air crewman who flew B-50's, so Gary isn't used to working
below 10,000 feet. The place is starting to look like a sonar shack.

The big job is still the trailer. Dennis Nagi has taken over
as "clerk of the works" since Charles Miner went to Florida,
and is doing a great job. Under his direction the Michigan guys were tasked with
painting the exterior of the trailer. Ron Zarem, John Bartko, Rush Mellinger,
Earl Moorehouse and Roy Brandon tackled the job. Dennis had all the
material ready for them so on Monday morning they went to work. They got a first
coat of gray stain on the trailer by the end of the day. Our weekday electrical
gang has the telephone lines and interior electrical work almost complete.

On Tuesday, they were joined by another gang of volunteers from Key Bank.
Each year Key Bank sponsors a "Neighbors Make a Difference Day
". SLATER has been a beneficiary of this event for the past four years.
This year, twelve Key Bank employees signed up to come down and help the Michigan
gang paint the trailer. They applied a second coat of stain on the exterior and
got a first coat of stain on the trim. They also painted out the interior gift
shop area white. After that the Key Crew helped the gunner move all the
40mm cans out of the gun three tub to the 01 level by the forties and moved a
bunch of three in powder cases up to the ready service lockers by gun 2. They
were a big help and gave us a real boost. Rush Mellinger jumped in after
the Key gang had finished their work and gave them a thorough tour of the ship.

On Wednesday Ron and his crew got a third coat of stain on the trailer and
on Thursday they finished the trim. Thursday evening, I asked BethSpain to take the crew out for a whaleboat ride, something I haven't
even offered to do for our regulars yet. It poured rain all day Friday, so they
turned to cleaning out storerooms aboard the ship. On Friday evening Lou
Renna graciously invited the whole crew for a free cruise and dinner aboard
our next-door neighbor the DUTCH APPLE. I understand that the crew was fairly
rowdy. There is even a rumor that John Bartko got a five-dollar tip for
a performance he did while the DJ was playing "The Stripper". Now,
I know John to be a very dignified and reasonable individual. I find such
scuttlebutt hard to believe, but they say they've got the pictures to
prove it.

After each field day, when the crew goes back to Michigan, there is
intense discussion at their next chapter meeting about who wins the award
for "Tim's Favorite". This is in refreshing contrast to the
home team crew that could generally give a damn about my opinion. The competition
in Michigan is usually pretty stiff between the head painter Ron Zarem
and the head welder Tom Schriner. This competition generally leads to
a lot of brownnosing, flattery, ingratiating and generally undignified behavior.
Not typical of sailors. For instance, I was served breakfast on officer's
china and real, not plastic, flatware, because chief cook Bill Kramer
announced he wanted to be in competition. The award can easily be bought by a
major donor, as John Bartko has proven for several years. However, if
rumors of his behavior on the DUTCH APPLE are true, this may disqualify him.
He reportedly gave that fin he got tipped back to its owner instead of donating
it to the SLATER. The jury is still out, and we'll report to you after the
next Michigan Chapter meeting.

To continue the ongoing saga of Greg Krawczyk and the USS CAVALLARO, Greg
finally got aboard the ship and was able to remove a few small items. He
received a lot of help from the Korean Navy. They had towed the CAVALLARO out
for another target exercise. Greg went to visit the ship when she got back.
She'd taken another hit, and he wanted to see how much of our gear had
survived. When he got aboard he found all the gear he had tagged was gone!
Fear turned to gratitude when he learned that the Koreans had removed it
prior to the exercise. He emailed me two photos. From the evidence, he has
obtained the entire 1MC amplifier rack, two lube oil purifiers, the complete
low pressure air compressor, a complete "K Gun and roller loader, a load
of circuit breakers and meters for the electrical panels, and just about every
piece of gear in the MK 52 radar room. His email said he was "Glad to be a
Grubby snipe again." Now we're working on shipping. I believe he
got more than he can ship as personal property when he comes home. Too bad
Greg isn't a member of the Michigan Chapter, as he could take the "
Tim's Favorite" award hands down.

Back on the home front, the regulars keep toiling away, though, as I said,
there is little interest here in being "Tim's favorite" for the month.
The gunners have had a really big month. They moved the train gear off gun
two and moved it aft to gun three. They got three all reassembled and it trains
and elevates like it just came out of the Gun Factory. They got moved all the
cartridges, ammo cans and parts out of the gun three tub, and did a beautiful
job repainting the tub and deck. They moved about five hundred pounds of gun
parts forward to be used on gun two as soon as Doug Tanner finishes
repairing the helical gears. In the meantime, they are working on the elevation
side of gun two lubricating, chipping, and painting the mount. The deck crew is
still chipping and painting. They are working on the starboard side of the main
deckhouse forward. The ship fitters have several projects going. Clark
Farnsworth, Red Hume and George Erwin are continuing to burn off, rebuild
and reinstall the wasted chocks. Doug Tanner, Tim Benner and Chuck Teal
are working on the rangefinder platform on the flying bridge. The radio gang
is still packed in like sardines. Newcomer Stan Murawski is a climber
who is doing a great job on antennas and insulators.

Nancy Buxton, Beth Spain, Paul Czesak and myself attended the annual
Historic Naval Ship's Convention held in Buffalo this year. We took turns
holding down the Fort. Nancy and Beth went over for the first two days,
and Paul and I went over for the last two. I was a little concerned when
I got there, because when I asked all my old friends if they had met the "
SLATER Girls," all I got was blank looks and shrugs. I started thinking
that they either kept a real low profile, or they spent the whole time in the
lounge. Margaret Renn of the Battleship Massachusetts finally fessed
up that Nancy had been in all her education sessions and that Beth
had attended all the preservation sessions. I did hear a rumor that they both
wore special names badges that read, "I work on the USS SLATER with Tim
Rizzuto, Please talk to me anyway."